Last week the government announced a proposed $4 billion in funding for mass transit projects, initially beginning in Auckland with light rail.
This comes on the back of comments made by the Minister of Transport, Phil Twyford, that he expects work on the project to begin within the next two years.
Light rail is a significant project for Auckland; it will carry huge numbers of passengers across Auckland’s isthmus and ease congestion in the city. Auckland Council continues to work with the government on progressing the project and has today (Monday 9 April) released three documents on Light Rail Transit plans in Auckland.
One of the documents details a potential accelerated delivery strategy to have light rail from the airport to the city in time for the America’s Cup and APEC summit in 2021.
Dated 1 October 2017, the Airport to City Light Rail Transit Acceleration Strategy identified a number of challenges the project would face in order to be operational by late 2020.
Also available is a briefing document prepared by Auckland Transport detailing work done to date on light rail for Auckland, as well as maps of Dominion Road light rail plans.
What next?
At present work on the delivery of light rail in Auckland is being undertaken by Auckland Council and NZTA, and the consideration of possible light rail links from the Airport to the City is the subject of an ongoing business case process that will feed into the Auckland Transport Alignment Project (ATAP).
ATAP sets out joint government and council transport priorities for Auckland and is expected to be released soon.
Read Auckland Council and Auckland Transport’s current position on light rail at the Auckland Transport website.
